MiNDS: Master in Natural Resources

Development and Storage

RESERVOIR GEOMECHANICS
CONTINUUM MECHANICS PART I:
THE STATE OF STRESS
THE MOHR CIRCLE
STRESS INVARIANTS
Chiara Deangeli HYDROSTATIC AND DEVIATORIC STRESS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS OF EQUILIBRIUM
a.y. 2023-2024
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 State of stress

Vertical stress (overburden pressure)

g
depth

v
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 State of stress




Direct shear test on a pure thenardite specimen

(Liang at al., 2006)
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 State of stress
v
h

h h

h
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Hollow Cylinder test on Opalinus clay

Modified from Labiouse & Vietor, 2014
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 Continuous medium
Continuous material: we disregard the discrete nature of matter and we consider it as being
without gaps or empty spaces.

The concept of a continuous medium permits us to define the stress at a point, a geometric
point in space conceived as occupying no volume, by a mathematical limit.
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 Surface forces Body forces
Surface forces result from physical contact between two bodies or they may
represent the force which an imaginary surface within a body exerts on the
adjacent surfaces.

Body forces are associated with the mass of the body and are distributed
throughout the volume of a body they do not result from direct contact with
other bodies. Gravitational, magnetic and inertial forces are body forces.
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external surface forces and internal forces

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 Stresses

F
=
A
F
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SI unit for stress: Pa (N/m2)

 Stresses
Weight a)
Stress at a) is the force over the area of the cross section:
F F A
=
A
Stress at b) is greater than stress at a):
b)
F
= F A1
A1
Divide the cross section at a) into an infinite number of subsections A
through which an infinitely small part F of the total force F is acting. The c)
force F can vary from one subsection to another. Consider a subsection i
which contains a point P. The stress at the point P is: F A2
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Fi
 = lim
Ai → 0 Ai
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SI unit for stress: Pa (N/m82)

 Stresses

Weight a)
In c) the force is no longer normal to the cross section. Decompose the
force into a normal Fn and a parallel Fs component to the section: F A
Fn
 = lim Normal stress
Ai →0 A
i

b)
Fs
 = lim Shear stress
F
Ai →0 A
A1
i

Fs c)
Fn
F
F A2
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 State of stress at a point P
matrix notation Stress tensor engineering notation

 xx  xy  xz   x  xy  xz 
   
 ij =  yx  yy  yz   ij =  yx  y  yz 
 zx  zy  zz   zx  zy  z 
  
z 9 components of stress
zz
6 independent stress components
zx zy
yz
xz yy   x  xy  xz 
xy yx
 ij =   y  yz 
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xx
y
 symm  z 
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x 10
 Geomechanics convention for stress and strain

States of stress occurring naturally in the earth crust and sustained in a rock mass
are pervasively compressive.

The following convention will be used for stress and strain analysis:

• Contractile normal strain are taken as positive

• Compressive normal stress are taken as positive
• The sense of positive shear stress on a surface is inward relative to the
coordinate origin, if the inward normal to the surface acts inwards relative to the
coordinate origin, and conversely
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 State of stress relative to Cartesian and
polar coordinate axes

Positive sign convention

y
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x
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 Analysis of stresses in two dimensions
y

yx

xy
x x
xy

yx

y
y
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x
Positive sign convention
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 Positive sign convention shear stresses 2D
Shear stresses

xy
x
Positive sign convention
Very simply:
we use the left hand fingers
oriented with (x,y).
In this figure the shear
yx stresses are positive
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 Rotation of the reference system

z
z
zx zy z
yz
xz
xy y
yx
x

y
y

x
x
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 Rotation of the reference system
Transformation law
If we rotate the reference system from (x,y,z) to (l,m,n), for a tensor
of the second order (ex. ij) we have the following transformation law:

x y z
l lx ly lz Direction cosines
m mx my mz
n nx ny nz

  l  lm  ln   lx ly lz   x  xy  xz  lx mx nx 
    
 ij =  lm  m  mn  =  mx
*
my mz   yx  y  yz  l y my n y 
 nl  mn  n   nx ny nz   xz  yz  z   lz mz nz 
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 * =  A  ij   AT 
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ij
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 Analysis of stresses in two dimensions

 x  xy 
 ij =  
 yx  y

Discussion of stresses are algebraically simpler in two dimensions than in three. In most
instances no generality is lost by considering the two dimensional case, as the extension to
three dimensions is usually straightforward. Many problems in rock mechanics are essentially
two dimensional. Hence it is worthwhile to study the properties of the two dimensional stress
tensors.
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 Analysis of stresses in two dimensions
State of stress on a general plane
Transformation law
y

yx
y

xy
x x
x
xy

yx
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y
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 State of stress on a general plane

A
y
OA = AB sin 
x
OB = AB cos 
 m AB = .......
 mn AB = ......

O B
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 State of stress on a general plane
Transformation law




x + y  x − y
m = + cos 2 +  xy sin 2
2 2
x + y  x − y
n = − cos 2 −  xy sin 2
2 2
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 x − y
 mn = − sin 2 +  xy cos 2
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 y
Principal Stresses
x
1 3
xy
x
x
xy
 x − y
 mn = − sin 2 +  xy cos 2 = 0
2
yx
2 xy yx
tan 2 =
 x − y y
y

The equation has two solutions. Two directions called principal axes of stress that
are orthogonal.
The normal stresses 1 (maximum) and 3 (minimum) are called principal
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stresses.
By substituting the equation into the expression of m and n we find the
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principal stresses. 21
 Mohr circle


Rearranging the expression of m and squaring the

expressions of mn and m and adding them we
obtain the equation of a circle


x + y   x −  y 
2 2
 3 1

 m −  +  2
mn =   +  2
xy
 2   2 
( m − C ) +  mn2 = R 2
2

 1 0 
 ij =  
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y  0  3
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x
 Principal stresses


x + y   x −  y 
2 2


 m −  +  2
mn =   +  2
xy
 2   2 

By imposing mn=0 we find two normal stresses,

called principal stresses. They act on two planes
on which the shear stress is equal to zero. 
3 1
 2
mn =0

x + y   x − y 
2

 1,3 =    +  2

2  2 
xy
 1 0 
 ij =  
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 0  3
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1 is the maximum principal stress and 3 is the minimum principal stress 23

 Origin of planes
OP
 1 0  
 ij =  
 0 3  
 Rigid translation of the plane
1
 
 A

y OP
 

3 1
x
3
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OP is a point on the Mohr circle with the following property:

A straight line through OP and any point A, belonging to the Mohr Circle, is
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parallel to the plane on which the stresses of point A act 24

 Exercise
Given:

0 0  0 0 
 ij =    ij =  
 0 1   0 − 1

1 0  0 1 
 ij =    ij =  
 0 1   1 0 

Represent the stress states with the Mohr circles

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 Principal stresses 3D


3
 1 0 0

 ij =  2 0  
2

1  symm  3 

3 2 1
z

y
x

Maximum principal stress: 1

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Intermediate principal stress: 2

Minimum principal stress: 3
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 Plane stress problems

Plane stress condition refers to those circumstances in which all stresses associated to one coordinate
direction are zero. An example is given by a thin plate with the face of the plate being free from stress

 z =  xz =  yz = 0
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 Stress invariants

I1 =  x +  y +  z = 3 p
I 2 =  x y +  x z +  y z −  xy2 −  xz2 −  yz2
I 3 =  x y z −  z xy2 −  y xz2 −  x yz2 + 2 xy xz yz

Or in terms of principal stresses:

I1 =  1 +  2 +  3 = 3 p
I 2 =  1 2 +  1 3 +  2 3
I 3 =  1 2 3

p is the mean normal stress

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ij Kronecker delta

I1 is the invariant that appears
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most often in constitutive laws 28

 Deviatoric stress
In the analysis of some types of rock and soil behavior, it is usual to split the stress tensor into
two components: a spherical or hydrostatic component, and a deviatoric component.
 ij kk
 ij = +  ijd
3
ij Kronecker delta
1
p =  kk p mean normal stress=I1/3
3 sij or (dij) deviatoric stress
 ij =  ij p + sij (stress deviator)

 x  xy  xz   p 0 0   x − p  xy  xz 
     
 ij =  yx  y  yz  =  0 p 0  +   yx  y − p  yz 
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 xz  yz  z   0 0 p    xz  yz  z − p 
 
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 Principal stress deviator
The deviatoric part of the stress tensor  ijd = sij in terms of principal stresses can be written as:

sij =  ij −  ij p
s1 = ( 1 − p ) s3 = ( 3 − p ) s2 = ( 2 − p )

1
s1 = ( 1 − p ) = ( 2 1 −  2 −  3 ) The components with mixed indices of both the
3 stress tensor and the stress deviator are the
1 same, so that principal directions of the
s2 = ( 2 − p ) = ( 2 2 −  1 −  3 ) stress deviator are also coincident with
the principal directions of the stress
3 tensor
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1
s3 = ( 3 − p ) = ( 2 3 −  1 −  2 )
3
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 Stress deviator invariants

J1 = s1 + s2 + s3 = 0
1 1
J 2 = ( s1 ) + ( s2 ) + ( s3 ) = ( 1 − p ) + ( 2 − p ) + ( 3 − p ) 

2 2 2 2 2 2

2  2 

J 3 = s1s2 s3

J2 is the invariant that appears most often in constitutive laws

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 Indefinite Differential Equations of equilibrium
Problems in solid mechanics frequently involve description of the stress distribution in a body in
static equilibrium under the combined action of surface and body forces.
Determination of the stress distribution must take account of the requirement that the stress field
maintains static equilibrium throughout the body. This condition requires satisfaction of the
equations of static equilibrium for all differential elements of the body.

 x  xz  xy
+ + +X =0
x z y
 y  yz  yx
+ + +Y = 0
y z x
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 z  zx  zy
+ + +Z =0
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z x y 32
 Axial-symmetry problems
We address these problems for several common laboratory tests

In terms of polar coordinates: z (or a),  r z

 z 0 0 r r
 ij =  r 0  r
z
 symm   
 r
Assuming uniform state of stress: = 0 The indefinite equilibrium equation in the radial direction implies:
r
 =r

 z 0 0
 ij =  0 
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r
 symm  r 
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 Axial-symmetry problems
I1 1
= p = ( z + 2 r )
1
J 2 = (  z − p ) + (  r − p ) + ( r − p ) 
2 2 2

2  3 3
1
J 2 = ( z −  r )
2

3
q = 3J 2 =  1 −  3
z (a)

r r
r
z (a)
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